The Las Vegas Aces meet the New York Liberty in Tuesday’s Commissioner’s Cup championship (9 p.m. ET), a matchup many expect to be a preview of the WNBA Finals. The teams are 1-2 in the WNBA standings and will meet twice this week at Las Vegas’ Michelob Ultra Arena, first for the Cup and then in a regular-season game Thursday.i
But what does the Commissioner’s Cup, which began in 2021, really mean to WNBA players?
“It’s still very new,” said forward A’ja Wilson, whose Aces won the Cup last year. “Even when it comes to Cup games throughout the season, for me it doesn’t register until the end.”
The most significant aspect of the Cup, actually, is cold, hard cash. The final has a prize pool of $500,000 for the players — the winning team’s players receive $30,000 each and the losing team’s players get $10,000 — with at least $165,000 in charitable donations made on behalf of all 12 teams throughout this season series. The Aces play for the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Southern Nevada, and the Liberty for the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center,…
